Quest for Lime Leaves and Other Not-So-Adventurous Adventures

This last weekend ended up being far more hectic than I had intended. This was due in large part to the fact that I had to drive all over tarnation on Saturday in search of lime leaves. I started out at the Allston Super 88, which was supposed to be a great Asian market. It's pretty big, but there is some construction going on right now so it seemed sort of empty, too. I asked in the produce section about lime leaves and the first two people had never heard of them (at least not in English... we seemed to have a communication barrier). The third person suggested that I try lemongrass, then told me that nobody in town carries lime leaves. At that point I left without exploring the rest of the store further, feeling a bit exasperated. (I get disproportionally irritated when people recommend ridiculous substitutions...) I then tried a small Asian grocery in Newtonville (near Waltham) that a co-worker had told me about. I asked about lime leaves (they don't carry them), then asked if the owner knew of anywhere else that might carry them. He replied that nobody sells them, adding "If anyone sold them, I would sell them." This was disheartening, so I returned home resigned to reworking the menu that I had been planning so that it would now be lime-leaf-free, inclined to believe the two people who had told me that nobody here sells lime leaves...

I went to the secret giant grocery store a block from my apartment to get some other ingredients and decided to ask there (because I'm stubborn) if they knew of anyone in a 20 mile radius who sells lime leaves. Thy had never heard of lime leaves, but suggested Russo's (noting that Russo's has pretty much everything... which is true...). I hadn't considered this option, since not even the Asian groceries carried them, and I was a bit skeptical after my morning of failure, but I called up Russo's and, sure enough, they sell lime leaves! Overpriced lime leaves, but lime leaves nonetheless. The menu was back on track, and things were looking up, even if it was 4 hours after I had planned to finish my grocery shopping when all was said and done. The whole experience definitely made me miss my produce people in Melbourne and Indo-China Market in Santa Barbara. Sigh... I'm going to have to start checking out the farmers' markets here when the city thaws out a little.
On Sunday a friend from Santa Barbara who teaches at UMass Lowell came out to join me for lunch. Like last weekend, it was good to catch up with a friend since I haven't met many new people here yet. Unlike last weekend, our "drive down Moody Street and pick a random restaurant" approach didn't work out so well. We ended up at India Mahal for the lunch buffet, and it all tasted sort of... American. Even the Saag (one of my very favorite things) sort of tasted more like your grandma's creamed spinach than like an Indian dish. Everything across the board was sort of under-seasoned and the seasoning that was there wasn't particularly reminiscent of Indian flavors. There are like 3 more Indian restaurants within a mile of my apartment that I still need to check out, so I definitely won't be returning to this one any time soon.
Sunday night I started the marinades for what was going to be my delicious dinner on Monday (and as long as I had leftovers after that). Whenever I'm craving Vietnamese food,I make my version of Bun Cha (grilled pork with shallots, fish sauce, and palm sugar) and also a dish that's apparently called Ga Chanh Roti (chicken marinated in lime leaves, scallions, and honey). The chicken I tend to eat on its own, since I don't want to mask the delicate lime leaf flavor with too many competing tastes. The pork is one of my favorite dishes to make, and doesn't even require ingredients that you have to drive all over town in search of... It probably helps that I am a huge fan of fish sauce, but I love how the palm sugar, shallots, and fish sauce all complement the pork so beautifully, especially with a nice char from the grill. One of my favorite components of Vietnamese food is the presence of lots of fresh herbs, and I like to serve the pork with a pile of herbs, bean sprouts, cucumbers, and carrots wrapped in a lettuce leaf and accompanied by a hot-sour-salty-sweet dipping sauce (made from lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and crushed red pepper flakes). I was too exhausted last night to be bothered with lettuce wraps, so I ended up making a salad with all of the components that usually go into the wrap (drizzled with a little of the dipping sauce) and that was pretty fantastic, too. Recipes are here if anyone is interested.
By the way, I am totally loving my new grill, which is by far the nicest grill I've ever owned. I don't even mind that in order to use it on Monday night I had to first deal with 6 inches of accumulated snow...
Yummy (Emily-style) Vietnamese food definitely helped to (mostly) wipe away the memory of lame "Indian" food and of my exhausting search for lime leaves, but I'm certainly ready for a lazy weekend doing absolutely nothing more strenuous than reading a good book, shopping for easy-to-find groceries, cooking up some more yummy food, and marveling at how adorable the bunnies are. Only two more work days to go... In my daydreaming moments, my brain is starting to plan a trip to Vietnam some time in the next year so that I can find out what the food is really all about...